Stagecoach Gold
History The Goldline brand was introduced to try and win more middle-class motorists to bus services. It was originally trialled in two areas, Perth and Warwick from November 2007, both on routes which received kick-start financing from the government to help start the routes. Stagecoach East Scotland provided £300,000 to demonstrate the concept to politicians. Goldline routes have a luxury specification. Buses have hand stitched leather seats, metallic paint, exclusive flooring and on the house WiFi. Drivers display a special attire and there is a Goldline customer code. In February 2009 the serviceability was spread to Aldershot and in September 2009 to Cheltenham and Gloucester on route 94. At this stage, the brand name was altered from Goldline to Stagecoach Gold, as well as the primer of a new livery with brighter swoops added, as opposed to the previous gold and blue only livery. The reason trailing the name adjustment was that Translink had the rights to the Goldline name, using it on their Ulsterbus coach services, and Stagecoach had to pay Translink a royalty. In 2010, the Stagecoach Gold brand was drawn-out to services run by Scottish Citylink, where Stagecoach has a 35% shareholding, where the Glasgow to Aberdeen and Glasgow to Inverness services were designated as Citylink Gold. In 2015, all pristine Stagecoach Gold vehicles came furnished with USB charging facilities underneath every seat which enabled passengers to charge their mobile devices whilst on board. USB charging initially became accessible on the Stagecoach in Oxfordshire S4 service which was promoted to Stagecoach Gold in September 2015. As of 2016, all brand new Stagecoach buses, together with non-gold vehicles, come provided with high back leather seats, USB charging facilities and many with free onboard Wi-Fi. Subsequently, this means that many of Stagecoach's new non-gold vehicles are now at the same spec as the Gold branded vehicles. As a result, some non-gold routes now have greater specification vehicles than many of the Gold routes as before 2015, Stagecoach Gold vehicles did not come equipped with USB charging facilities. 2016 further saw Stagecoach take shipment of the first Stagecoach Gold branded Alexander Dennis Enviro400 MMC and Enviro200 MMC vehicles. The liveries on the new vehicles cling to the same as the previous models however Stagecoach have somewhat altered the internal upholstery with new elegant leather seats that unite a cream coloured headrest and a new wood effect floor. Stagecoach Gold services operated by Stagecoach in Oxfordshire also profit from the capability to accept Contactless and Mobile payments which were rolled out to the entire Stagecoach in Oxfordshire services in October 2016. Stagecoach Group proposes to have Contactless and Mobile payments accessible on all services across all divisions by the end of Q4 2018. Routes As at February 2017 there were 46 Stagecoach Gold routes. Future Stagecoach Group declared their annual 2017/2018 vehicle order on 13 April 2017 with a total expenditure of £70 million on new vehicles. The official fleet handbook was issued late April 2017 and determined that a total of thirty-six vehicles on the system would be to Stagecoach Gold specification. Eleven vehicles will be Alexander Dennis Enviro400 MMCs with seven planned for Stagecoach Merseyside's Birkenhead depot and the leftover four being for Stagecoach in Oxfordshire's Oxford depot. Twenty-five vehicles will be Alexander Dennis Enviro200 MMCs with all twenty-five intended for Stagecoach Midland's Nuneaton depot. Former services